The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-05-18
France.

A Paris correspondent OF INC Boston
Journal writes; Paris has been sur
rounded for the last two years with
ring of vilely smelling glucose and
cider factories. where all sorts of abom-
nations are made up into drinks which
The poor classes find very palatable, but
which probably do them great harm
morally and physically. One of those
enterprising people who is always peer
ing into out-of- the-way places has just
given his contribution TO the subject OF
these odors and it is not entirely invit.
ing, although it is curious enough. He
lays that during long walks through
the plain of st. Denis he came one dag
upon MISUNDERSTANDING range OF
buildings. carefully protected from out
side observation, and from this estab-
! lshment issued odors which ought tc
have driven him away. but which piequ-
ed his curiosity that he set about find
! ing means OF entrance. 1t CHANGED
| that he was in the habit not only Of
walking IN the plain of st. Denis, but
| Of promenading the wards of hospitals
| in his quality of med cal student; and,
! being present one day at the dismissal
! Of patient who had had what the doc
! tors call an "interesting seasc," he
said to this patient: "What are you go
' Ing to turn your attention to now that
YOU are quite wcll?" II am gong
back TO my old bus ness" said the wo-
man, for it was woman, with little
hesitation in her speech. "And what
Is your business" II am preparer
of skeletons. This declaration of such
an unusual profession led to long in
tervicw, in the course of which our ex-
plorcr discovered that the woInsn was
one of numerous band of employees
who worked night and day in the mys
terious range of buildings in the plain
of st. Denis, and transformed the bodies
! brought from the hospitals and prisons,
not only of France, but of foreign
countries, into skeletons for the students
OF anatomy and for the cabinets OF SUR
geons BY iudic.ous bribery this curl
ously-minded person obtained entrance
into the establishment of st. Denis
where he saw things which he has de-
scribed at much length, and which arc
sufficiently startling.
In one OF the buildings is an i'm
mcnse row of caldrons, in which are
boiled the bodies not only of men and
women, but of the various animals
whose bodies are needed for the purpose
of study, Thilher in gashly process
son come at night carts from the pr's>
ons and hospitals and the youthful as
,assin fresh from the scailold and the
] overworke1 old drudge, who has found
: his final resting place in Il hospital
ward, are placed in the caldron to have
all Che flesh boiled OH their bones. 1t
is wen known that the burial Of MUIR
dcrcrs Is only II polite fiction, rs the
bodies are almost Immediately removed
| from the cemetery OF the condemned
/ and taken either TO the dissccting. rooms
! of hospital or to this peculiar place
which | am now describing. Our eX-
plorer was informed by the person who
introduced him to this lugubrious place
that large number of bodies have been
brought for the past few years from
Austria; and the suppostion is that they
are disentcrrcd from the battle fields
which have been so numerous since
1877 in southeastern Europe. The
view of this caldron room at night,
with the quiet and respectable locking
men and women preparing the bodies
tor the caldrons is Il subject worthy of
the pen of Theophiie Gauter, or of
Baudclaire in his maddest moments.
In other buildings connected with tn
boiling room are the laboratories where
the bones, when once all the flesh and
tcndons have been detached from them,
are set up as skeletons. This work is
very well paid. and among the people
who engage in it are all kinds of what
! the French call unbiased pe'sons
whose knowledge has not been suili
Client to keep them ont OF serious dili'
cultes in life. and who have finally
/ gravitatcd toward this strange pu suit
The preparation of the skeleto IS OF
animals is very large industry Eve
/ ~ creature irOm frog, and ,erpe,ds 10
tigers and lions, is here boiled. The
I bones are then wh,tened and they are
set up and wired together by tn skill
jul operatives. No doubt the odors
from this place oc 'aS,ionally sweep
down across the splendid eXpahse OF
/ Paris. from Montmartre to Monlrouge
Oysters that Grow on Tire g.